Search form

The GOP Tax Bill Will Add $1.8 Trillion to the National Debt: CBO

iStockphoto/TheFiscalTimes

By Michael Rainey

January 3, 2018

MOST POPULAR

The Congressional Budget Office released new estimates Tuesday of projected federal deficits over the next decade. On top of the deficits already forecast for the next decade, the CBO said the tax bill will increase the national debt by $1.8 trillion, including interest costs, on a static basis.

Overall public debt is projected to climb to nearly the size of the size of the U.S. economy by 2027, about six percentage points higher than the previous projection for the 10-year period and up from its current level of roughly 75 percent of GDP. By 2027, “debt held by the public would increase from the 91.2 percent of gross domestic product in CBO’s June 2017 baseline to 97.5 percent,” CBO director Keith Hall wrote to Sen. Ron Wyden, who requested the analysis.

Here are the CBO’s estimates for annual deficits, with the tax bill’s contributions, from both revenue losses and additional interest costs, noted in parentheses: